Rareth let out a long sigh when Freyr relayed the Captain’s answer to her. “With respect, Dr. Lang, your Captain is not the one who makes that decision. I took the time to familiarize myself with your command structure. You are the lead science official on this mission for your people, and you are the one ultimately in charge of decision making for the expedition itself…for your people. If you set a limit for the number of people that can be safely involved in this mission, one that my people agree to, then your Captain must respect that. Come…let us deal with this.” 

[hr]

By this point, Rareth had grown just as frustrated with the frequent delays as Freyr and the others had, and she was intent on making sure there were no more of them. The discussion with the Captain was not entirely pleasant, but it was at least productive. Among other things, Rareth pointed out the Captain’s lack of scientific expertise to be able to make the judgement that it was safe to nearly double the number of people on the mission. She requested that Freyr describe every single risk that came with drawing too much of the entity’s energy to make sure that the Captain heard and understood them, then gave her own opinion that obstructing her Cradle expert’s decisions would be tantamount to sabotage for their mission. 

Ultimately, they did reach an accord that everyone could at least agree to, albeit reluctantly. There would be eight scientists, drawn from both teams, on the mission, as the lab required eight people to operate. Marae and her team had already been working on the lab to make their upgrades, so it did not take much more for them to become familiar enough to operate it. The Sacred Band, as well as Agent 595 would be joining for security. The Rothians had space for a fireteam of three of their own soldiers, as well as Vreta. The role that Rareth was, officially, giving to Vreta was one of diplomacy. He was the one being tasked with trying to make contact with the entity to inform it of their plans, as well as speaking with any other intelligent beings they might encounter. Recordings from their encounter with the near-Rothians in the simulation had been analyzed to the point that they had been able to produce a translation program for their language. Or at least…a prototype version of one. 

It was early the next morning when both teams were finally ready to enter the simulation. Among the Rothians, scientist and soldier alike were being armed and equipped with combat armor for their own protection. Nirann was again going to be inserting in the frame of a combat droid with as much processing power as they could fit inside. Though, regardless of what they had for defense, Rareth made it clear in her briefing beforehand that their primary response to any threat would be retreat. They were being given multiple of the mobile transit stations, as well the Human-made transit station for the sake of redundancy. Their first priority upon entry would be to establish their transit station, and if any threat were to emerge, their first response would be to use it.